Thomson's Tech Tips

Which Cameras Use 12G-SDI?
This is the list you bookmark. If your camera’s on it, you need 12G cables. No wiggle room. What 12G-SDI actually means 12G-SDI (SMPTE ST 2082) pushes 11.88 Gbps over a single cable. That’s enough for 4K/UHD up to 60fps, DCI 4K (4096 × 2160), large format resolutions at full bandwidth, HDR without compromises, and high frame rates without splitting signals. No quad-link spaghetti. No dual-link headaches. One cable. Full fat signal. Cinema cameras running 12G-SDI RED (current generation) DSMC2 (late models): RED MONSTRO 8K VV, RED GEMINI 5K DSMC3... Read more...
Which Cameras Use 3G-SDI?
Short answer: most of them. Still. 3G-SDI has been the load-bearing wall of professional video for over a decade, and it’s not going anywhere overnight. Here’s the full picture. What 3G-SDI actually is 3G-SDI (SMPTE 424M) runs at 2.97 Gbps. That gets you 1080p up to 60fps (clean and reliable), 2K at lower frame rates, and 4K technically, if you’re willing to play games with quad-link or accept compromises nobody wants to make. It’s the standard that carried us through HD and got us into 4K. Still baked into the... Read more...
Cable Crimping Quality: Why Your "Pro" Cables Are Failing
You paid good money for “professional” SDI cables. They showed up looking sharp. Six months later, you’re chasing intermittent signal drops on set while the AD breathes down your neck. The cable isn’t the problem. The crimp is. What a crimp actually does A BNC crimp is where the connector meets the cable. It’s a mechanical and electrical junction that has to do two things perfectly: maintain 75-ohm impedance across the transition, and hold the connector to the cable under real-world stress. Mess up either one and you’ve built a... Read more...
12G SDI Port Safety: Stop Killing Your Camera's BNC
You don’t “have a 12G-SDI port.” You have a tiny, high-frequency RF connector bolted to a very expensive board inside a camera that doesn’t care about your shotlist. Treat it like a door handle and you’ll eventually pay for it. The quiet disaster nobody warns you about That BNC on your cinema camera is pushing 12 billion bits per second. Twelve. Billion. Every second. Through a connector that was never designed to do it   And yet… on set, people do this all day: yank the cable sideways because the... Read more...
All about the all-new StormBox Pro!
The StormBox Pro breaks out all four EXT I/O functions on industry standard ports, so you can use timecode, genlock, SmallHD Control, and Run/Stop triggers, all at the same time! The same professional grade cables that work with other cameras and audio recorders, can now work with your Komodo-X or V-Raptor… no dongles or adapters required!   Features: 5 pin Timecode In/Out 4 pin RCP2 CTRL (for SmallHD monitors) 3 pin Run/Stop Trigger (Fischer-style) BNC Genlock Input  All-aluminum enclosure Included Storm Lock quick release mounting system Ultra durable laser engraved port... Read more...